A prostate cancer charity is returning thousands of dollars raised by a forum on the social-networking site Reddit because it offers advice on how to share the leaked naked photos of celebrities.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation, based in Santa Monica, California, received more than $6,000 in donations in just a few hours from users of 'The Fappening', a subreddit that was set up on Sunday.

As a result, the forum collectively became
the top fundraiser as tracked by the Foundation's website, with many of the donations signed off anonymously 'in honour' of U.S. actress Jennifer Lawrence.

But now, the charity has decided to
return the funds 'out of respect for everyone involved' in the leak, which has so far targeted more than 100 celebrities, including
Lawrence and supermodel Kate Upton.

Top fundraiser: The Prostate Cancer Foundation, based in Santa Monica, California, received more than $6,000 in donations from users of 'The Fappening', resulting in the forum collectively becoming the top fundraiser

Subreddit: 'The Fappening' was set up after a hacker stole personal images from stars' online accounts and uploaded them to 4chan, the image-sharing forum. A staggering 137,305 people have subscribed to the forum

Leak: A new wave of 'naked' celebrity pictures
have been leaked online, including ones allegedly featuring Jessica
Brown Findlay (right). A video, reportedly showing Jennifer Lawrence
(left), has also been leaked online

A spokesman told MailOnline: 'On Monday, a Reddit user directed other Reddit
users to make a donation to the Prostate Cancer Foundation without the
Foundation’s knowledge.

'We would never condone raising funds for cancer
research in this manner. Out of respect for everyone involved and in
keeping with our own standards, we are returning all donations that
resulted from this post.'

'The Fappening' forum was set up after a hacker stole
private images from stars' online accounts, before uploading them to 4chan,
the image-sharing forum.

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It
allows more than 120,000 subscribers to view the graphic pictures,
provides advice on how to share them online and protects the identity of
the unnamed hacker.

Unsurprisingly,
Reddit users reacted angrily to the Foundation's decision to return their donations, with some claiming to have emailed the charity directly
to protest the decision.

One
user wrote: 'What kind of charity doesn't accept free money for
research for such an important cause? This makes me really mad.'

Moderator: The forum allows subscribers to view the graphic pictures, provides advice on how to share them online and protects the identity of the unnamed hacker. Above, a post from the community's moderator

Affected: The newly-laked pictures are
alleged to include snaps of Parks and Recreation actress Aubrey Plaza
(left) and American Idol Season 12 contestant Tenna Torres (right)

Another added: 'They are literally saying that Jennifer Lawrence is more important than cure for cancer.'

It remains unclear why the subreddit initially provided a link to the charity's fundraising
page.

Yesterday, a new wave of 'nude' celebrity photos
were leaked online amid claims the graphic images may have been
passed around an online club for months.

A video, reportedly showing The Hunger Games star Lawrence, was also leaked online.

Fund-raising: Yesterday afternoon, users had raised $4,145. This figure later shot up to more than $6,000

It followed the publication of naked photos of Lawrence
and '100 other celebrities', including Upton and actress
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, on Sunday.

The subreddit, which reported the latest leak via its 'live updates' section, has told users that they must not post any information, true or false,
about the identity of the person leaking the photos.

In the post on Monday, the moderator wrote: 'If you do
that, you will be banned from this subreddit.'

The
moderator, using the handle 'thefappeningmod', went on to list an array
of other domains that subscribers can use to access the nude pictures.

Every time the subreddit, along with 'live updates' is deleted, a new forum is opened. According
to a recent report from the live broadcast, the hacker has more than
2GB worth of footage that they may release to the public for free.

Investigation: Apple is 'actively investigating' claims that a flaw in the 'Find My iPhone' function of its iCloud service (right) may have helped the hacker to steal the images, while Kirsten Dunst (left) yesterday became the first celebrity to publicly criticize Apple when she posted a saracastic message on Twitter

At the time of this article, a staggering 137,305 people had subscribed to the forum, which refers to a sexual act, already.

On Monday, the FBI said it was
addressing allegations that the hacker broke into stars' online
accounts to steal the images, but it remains powerless to stop the
continued spread of photos.

Meanwhile, Apple has admitted it is 'actively investigating' claims that a flaw in the
'Find My iPhone' function of its iCloud service may have helped the hacker
to steal the images.

But the tech giant could not say how the
alleged breach occurred and failed to offer any guarantee to its hundreds
of millions of customers worldwide that the service is safe to use.

Sarcastic response: The Spiderman star tweeted 'Thank you iCloud' along with icons representing a slice of pizza and a pile of poo on Monday, the day after naked photos of the star were published online

Meanwhile, it quietly issued a
'patch', or fix, for the alleged 'Find My iPhone' bug.

The internet is awash with
speculation about the source of the leak. According to one anonymous 4chan poster, the
release of nude photographs of celebrities was the product of an
‘underground celeb n00d-trading ring'.

The poster claimed
the ring had been in operation for months and posters would trade or
sell the photos they retrieved between each other.

'We would never condone raising funds for cancer
research in this manner. Out of respect for everyone involved, we are returning all donations'

Prostate Cancer Foundation

Another poster
on deadspin.com, who claims to have been involved, wrote on AnonIB that the hacking had been ‘several months’ in the making
and the nude photos were the result of ‘several months of long and hard
work by all involved.

Earlier this week, Kirsten Dunst became the
first celebrity to publicly criticize Apple when she posted a
sarcastic message on Twitter. The Spiderman star tweeted 'Thank you
iCloud', the day after naked photos of her were published online.

It is unknown how large the cache of 'nude' celebrity photos is, but it reportedly also includes images of Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Cara Delevingne, Ariana Grande and Victoria Justice.

Some of the 101 celebrities listed by the hacker have claimed the photos are fake, while others are yet to see any photos appear online.